3 reasons to use evidence-based staffing

When hospitals look at their bottom lines, staff is typically one of the casualties. However, experts say being understaffed can ultimately cost a hospital.

“It’s more expensive to under staff,” said Cheryl Wagner, associate dean of graduate nursing programs at American Sentinel University.

Wagner has been researching and writing about the issue of under staffing for years and said hospitals need to start utilizing evidence-based staffing as opposed to arbitrarily deciding how many staff it needs.

Wagner recently talked to Healthcare Finance News and offered her three reasons to use evidence-based staffing.

1) Saving one’s bottom (line) Wagner says there’s a misconception that cutting staff saves a hospital’s bottom line.

“It’s actually cheaper in the long run to staff appropriately,” she said. “You think you’re saving money today.”

Having limited staffing causes hospitals to run into liability issues, Wagner says, which can end up costing hospitals millions. Evidence-based staffing can prevent a whole slew of problems, including nurse burnout, higher rates of infection, poor patient outcome, lack of properly trained staff, all of which cost hospitals in the long run.

2) Don’t get burned (out) Wagner says nurses are vital parts of a hospital functioning and if the hospital is understaffed, it’s easy for nurses to burnout. “By reducing nurse burnout, we can improve the well-being of nurses while improving the quality of patient care,” said Wagner.

Nurses work hard and become burned out when they are overworked. Wagner points to a study that says nearly seven million hospitalized patients each year acquire infections while being treated for other conditions. The culprit, according to the study published in the American Journal of Infection Control, is nurse burnout and has been linked to higher rates of hospital-acquired infections.

“There is a tendency for nurses to get tired and want to take a break when they are taking on a heavier than normal load of patients, so they may cut corners to get work done,” Wagner said.

3) Help patients’ out (come) One of the most important aspects of proper staffing that ties into the cost savings portion of why evidence-based staffing is so important, is patient outcome. It’s simple. Proper staffing equates to better patient outcome.

“There are studies that say if you don’t staff properly... then you’ll have a poor outcome,” Wagner said. “The patients have better care,” she added, referring to proper staffing.

Wagner said when hospitals are understaffed, they rely on nurse assistants to step in, which can cause problems in the long run.

Wagner pointed to another study by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality that says nurse-to-patient staff ratios are linked with patient outcomes.

“The fact that you don’t have appropriately trained nurses,” Wagner said. “It’s not just about having bodies there.